In the fall, we lost our 6 year old Bernese Mountain dog to unknown causes. It was quite sudden and happened while I was at school an hour and a half away from home. Mom texted me, I got up and left my class (leaving everything in there) to go outside and cry under a tree.

My moms aunt recently lost her German Shepard mix that they rescued. She was old.

Last Wed, Ricky, a horse at my barn lied down and got stuck. (he'd been doing this for months and he was very old) They tried to get him up, but couldn't do it. He had to be put down that night. I wish I could have been there and not at school. It seems that it is unique to the horse world for friends to come together when something happens to their horse that could result in being put down. But his owner was out of town as well, shes very broken up about it.

And today, I found out that an old friend of mine (the one who originally got me into horses and showing) had to rush her horse, Jet, to the vet for colic surgery and he didn't make it. That's the second horse she lost. He wasn't old either.

It makes me so nervous because my older horse, Electric, is 25. That's how old Ricky was. He's not in too great of shape. He's got an unknown bump on his face that gets bigger and smaller. He's also blind in one eye, will soon be blind in the other and has heaves, which is kind of like horse asthma. Not living at home worries me if something happens to him while I'm here. At least I'm not so far away. I think I'd be able to make it home if something did happen to him, but it makes me nervous.

It's not an everyday occurrence that horses need put down. But two that were owned by friends within 5 days....I don't think I can deal with another anytime soon.